Security Systems News - Lowe’shttp://securitysystemsnews.com/taxonomy/term/4785
enLowe’s Iris thriving two years after launchhttp://securitysystemsnews.com/article/lowe-s-iris-thriving-two-years-after-launch
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<div class="field-item even">The home improvement retailer also is testing an installation option for customers who need assistance with the DIY smart home product</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:datePublished dc:date"><span class="date-display-single" property="schema:datePublished dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2014-08-06T00:00:00-04:00">08/06/2014</span></div>
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<div class="field-item even" rel="schema:author dc:creator">Tess Nacelewicz</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:articleBody content:encoded"> <p>MOOREVILLE, N.C.—In the two years since Lowe’s <a href="http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/lowe-s-launches-home-automation-home-security-service" target="_blank">launched Iris</a>, the new do-it-yourself home automation/home security product is doing so well it’s offered in Lowe’s stores nationwide and the company is trialing a professional installation option for customers who need extra help.</p>
<p>The home improvement retailer, based here, also recently announced the launch of some new Iris home automation products, including a smart garage door controller, an electronic pet door, a window blinds controller and a hose faucet timer, which make it easier to cut energy and water costs.</p>
<p>How many customers now have bought Iris? Kevin Meagher, Lowe’s vice president and general manager, Smart Home, declined to reveal specific figures but noted there’s a reason the company has been expanding its Iris offerings.</p>
<p>“All I can say is, we didn’t extend to all stores and increase the footprint in all stores because it was going badly,” Meagher told <em>Security Systems News</em>.</p>
<p>A little more than a year ago, Iris was offered in <a href="http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/lowe-s-selling-iris-verizon-wireless-stores" target="_blank">500 Lowe's stores</a>, but now it’s in more than 1,500 of Lowe’s approximately 1,700 stores nationwide, Meagher said. And the stores have devoted more floor space to showing and demonstrating the product. “So, we’ve made a huge investment and we’ve also extended the size of the footprint,” he said.</p>
<p>Iris is not professionally monitored. But now, Meagher said, the company is trialing a professional installation option, tapping local installation companies to help Lowe’s customers who request that service.</p>
<p>Most of Lowe’s Iris customers like DIY, Meagher said. “One of the reasons we don’t have a problem is because we’re Lowe’s. And what I mean by that is … most of our customers are doing jobs round the home and most of them are walking in to pick up the stuff and do it themselves.”</p>
<p>Also, he said, Lowe’s has made DIY installation easy. “If you look at our customer feedback, if we’ve done one thing really well, it’s that we’ve taken what was a fairly complex proposition and made it very simple to install. It literally is pull tabs out of sensors, go to a Web page, tell us what you’ve done, [and] access your app to control it.”</p>
<p>Still, he said, some customers do want assistance, particularly with thermostats or door locks. To get that help, he said, “they simply go online to our website and they click, give us their post code, tell us what they want installed and we automatically will find a local installation company and give them a fixed price for the installation. The price for installation depends on what they want installed.”</p>
<p>Meagher noted that installation is not a new concept to the company when it comes to other home improvement products. “Again,” he told SSN, “it comes back to that we’re Lowe’s; we have installation service already as part of our core business.”</p>
<p>Iris offers customers two levels of service. The basic one is free and customers can do such things as open and close their door lock and arm and disarm their security systems, Meagher said.</p>
<p>The other level costs $10 per month and “gives you a lot more in terms of messaging capability,” he said, warning you and, if you so chose, friends, family and/or neighbors if an alarm goes off.</p>
<p>Also, he said, “It allows you to start programming your home with what we call Magic. And Magic is basically writing rules. So, for example, in my house, whenever I leave my house and select my ‘away’ mode, it deadbolts my front door and my back door, it turns my security system on” and also adjusts the thermostat and turns light off. “It has all those safety and convenience features with the press of one button,” Meagher said.</p>
<p>The company said that the recent product additions in July join “the 50 existing devices currently available for Iris – including security cameras, smoke detectors [and] water leak detectors.”</p>
<p>The company also claims, “Lowe’s was the first to target the mass consumer market with a broad home automation solution in Iris and the first to introduce a truly open platform—allowing devices across its stores to connect with one another.” Iris’ open platform also supports dozens of other Zigbee and Z-Wave-enabled devices, the company said.</p>
<p>Meagher told SSN, “We don’t want to lock customers into one proprietary wireless, so we’re very much around open platform, open standards, and that’s what allows us to really scale in the way we can, because we don't need to invent everything. We’ve got people now coming to us with a whole bunch of Zigbee and Z-Wave devices that they’ve invented and we just go, ‘Great’ and bring it into our ecosystem.”</p>
<p>He contends that Lowe’s and other new smart home players such as <a href="http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/blog/google-s-dropcam-security-push-and-apple-s-smart-home-big-play-should-security-companies-be" target="_blank">Google</a>, <a href="http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/google-s-nest-buying-dropcam" target="_blank">Dropcam</a> and <a href="http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/also-noted/apples-new-homekit-connects-home-appliances" target="_blank">Apple</a> are “reinventing” the industry. “The future for the security industry is in home automation, the smart home,” Meagher said. “You’re not going to be able to get $30 to $50 a month from consumers for simply monitoring the house for burglars. The world has moved on and it’s going to be a challenging time for those [traditional security] folks in the industry. And while they can look across and pooh-pooh self-install and talk about it as being a toy or whatever it might be, this stuff is serious and it’s selling in volumes and it’s where the market is going to grow.”</p> </div>
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<span property="dc:title" content="Lowe’s Iris thriving two years after launch" class="rdf-meta element-hidden"></span>Wed, 06 Aug 2014 18:37:44 +0000Tess Nacelewicz17712 at http://securitysystemsnews.comhttp://securitysystemsnews.com/article/lowe-s-iris-thriving-two-years-after-launch#commentsDoes retail sell security short? Readers split on value of storeshttp://securitysystemsnews.com/article/does-retail-sell-security-short-readers-split-value-stores
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:datePublished dc:date"><span class="date-display-single" property="schema:datePublished dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2013-06-25T00:00:00-04:00">06/25/2013</span></div>
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<div class="field-item even" rel="schema:author dc:creator">Rich Miller</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:articleBody content:encoded"> <p>YARMOUTH, Maine—Selling home security at retail stores is one of the hottest trends in the industry. Comcast, AT&amp;T and Lowe’s are among the big players doing it, and some smaller companies are carving a niche there as well. But the majority of SSN poll respondents see it as something else: a fad that won’t be supported in the long run by customers.</p>
<p>Fifty-one percent of readers who participated in the June News Poll said their companies aren’t interested in selling security at retail outlets. Many of those respondents were critical of the approach being used by the new market entrants, saying it was simplistic at best and possibly even dangerous for do-it-yourself homeowners.</p>
<p>“What happens when these box stores send someone home with a system that does not meet their needs or isn’t connected properly?” one reader asked. “If retail is the wave of the future then I guess we’ll need to get on board, but I’ll hold on to the traditional sales model as long as it remains successful.”</p>
<p>“When you include the added number of false trips generated by each do-it-yourselfer, the response time of trained emergency personnel will suffer for the rest of us,” wrote J.P. Jones, a security consultant at Springfield, Mo.-based Atlas Security. “Should the central stations have an ‘A’ class of dispatch for professional installations and a ‘B’ class of dispatch for the rest?”</p>
<p>“Each system needs to be custom to the client if it is to truly secure the home—not a cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all solution,” another reader said.</p>
<p>Not everyone was so bearish on retail security. Thirteen percent of poll respondents said they already sell products at a company store, while 36 percent said they were considering it.</p>
<p>“For the do-it-yourselfer, this is a no-brainer,” a reader wrote. “The technology is straightforward and fairly easy to apply. The days of massive amounts of wire and large control panels are on their way out for a large segment of residential systems.”</p>
<p>“We are opening a company store ‘with a twist’ in the fall,” said Craig Wohl, owner of CW Security Service of Dublin, Pa. “This was something I was thinking about for seven or eight years, but I didn’t think the technology was far enough along yet.”</p>
<p>“We don’t have a store, but I think it is a great idea,” another respondent said. “Many customers will go to them to check out products, just like they flock to home and garden shows. I think the companies that offer this will have a leg up on the competition.”</p>
<p>For those who believe that retail security has a future, 69 percent said the knowledgeable staff at professional security companies would give them an advantage over their big-box competitors.</p>
<p>“Too many of the big-box stores see this as just another added sale,” a reader wrote.</p>
<p>Sixty-two people participated in the poll.</p> </div>
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<span property="dc:title" content="Does retail sell security short? Readers split on value of stores" class="rdf-meta element-hidden"></span>Tue, 25 Jun 2013 18:27:30 +0000Rich Miller16582 at http://securitysystemsnews.comhttp://securitysystemsnews.com/article/does-retail-sell-security-short-readers-split-value-stores#commentsInflux of telecoms, cablecos into security not alarming, study sayshttp://securitysystemsnews.com/article/influx-telecoms-cablecos-security-not-alarming-study-says
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<div class="field-item even">According to IMS Research, the new players will help boost the home penetration rate very rapidly over the new few years</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:datePublished dc:date"><span class="date-display-single" property="schema:datePublished dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2013-06-07T00:00:00-04:00">06/07/2013</span></div>
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<div class="field-item even" rel="schema:author dc:creator">Tess Nacelewicz</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:articleBody content:encoded"> <p>AUSTIN, Texas—The penetration rate for U.S. residential intrusion alarm products will increase by 5 percent to 8 percent during the next three years, aided by the entrance of the new telecom and cableco players in the market, according to a recent study by IMS Research, now part of IHS.</p>
<p>Adi Pavlovic, security and fire analyst for IHS, told <em>Security Systems News</em> that it’s too early to tell how much the new players already have increased the penetration rate, which has been stalled at about 20 percent for years. Telecoms and cablecos have just entered the market in the past couple of years, so they are very new, he noted. “I would say it’s still under 1 percent,” he said.</p>
<p>However, Pavlovic predicted, “It’s going to pick up really quickly once they do get established. … They all have goals to just spread out across the whole nation and once they do that then they’re making that offer to 100 percent of their client base, and that’s when we’re going to see the penetration rate pick up.”</p>
<p>A sudden influx of players and increased competition is detrimental for an industry in most cases. However, the traditional security industry is unique in embracing the plethora of new competitors entering the business, according to the new study, “The World Market for Intruder Alarms.”</p>
<p>Pavlovic said the industry believes that the entrance of telecoms and cablecos means “they’re going to increase the penetration rate and make [security] a lot more common in the home than it is right now.”</p>
<p>That’s because the recent market entrants are partnering with established security suppliers to offer complete home security product offerings and are increasing market awareness of home management systems, which combine traditional home security with innovative home automation technology, according to the study.</p>
<p>The report notes, “While home automation features are driving the penetration of integrated home management systems, the core functionality consists of a basic intrusion system.”</p>
<p>Pavlovic said the telecoms and cablecos are doing everything from running television ads to reaching out directly to their own customers to market home security/home automation.</p>
<p> “Just increasing the awareness and the education of that is going to help the traditional guys as well,” he said. “People will say, ‘Wow, I’m curious about that,’ and they might do a little research and compare the traditional guys” to the telecoms and cablecos who “don’t always have the most favorable customer reports.”</p>
<p>Telecommunication companies like <a href="http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/att-launches-digital-life-15-new-markets" target="_blank">AT&amp;T</a> and <a href="http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/blog/time-warner-about-wrap-home-security-rollout" target="_blank">Time Warner</a> are among a growing list of companies entering the market. The list also includes <a href="http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/comcast-we-re-not-just-cable-company-anymore" target="_blank">Comcast</a>, <a href="http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/cox-expanding-its-home-security-home-automation-reach" target="_blank">Cox Communications</a>, <a href="http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/blog/verizon-securing-nation%E2%80%99s-homes" target="_blank">Verizon</a> and <a href="http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/lowe-s-selling-iris-verizon-wireless-stores" target="_blank">Lowe’s</a>.</p>
<p>“Leveraging their existing client base, the telecoms and cablecos are offering home management systems in order to increase their average revenue per user (ARPU),” according to the report from England-based IMS, whose U.S. headquarters is here.</p>
<p>“Combining these newer offerings in addition to pre-existing services such as cable, Internet and telephone is becoming an attractive and cost-effective way to entice end users, thus driving the uptake of security products,” according to the report. It noted that some new entrants have partnered with existing professional monitoring companies, while some have decided to launch their own monitoring stations.</p>
<p>Pavlovic said the penetration increase of as much as 8 percent in the next several years will be partly due to increased business for traditional companies, but largely due to the telecoms and cablecos.</p>
<p>“It’s mostly going to be them, doing the bundles, the cable, the Internet, the phone and now home security,” he told SSN. “Once they start making that offer to the millions of customers they have, [even] a small percentage of them making that switch to that bundle, that’s going to mean big things to the intruder alarm industry.”</p>
<p>How will the fact that some of the new players offer a self-monitored home security product impact the industry?</p>
<p>“It’s a niche market and most likely will stay niche for now,” Pavlovic said. He said it’s assumed that the market will grow, but it’s too early to tell how much of a threat such products could pose to professional monitoring companies.</p>
<p>He noted that the study is a global one. The intrusion alarm market in Europe is slow because of the poor economy, but “exciting stuff is happening within the U.S.,” Pavlovic said.</p>
<p>“The economy is starting to recover, and construction is doing better so there are going to be a lot more opportunities for intruder alarms, and now the game is changing with the telecoms and the self-monitoring picking up steam,” Pavlovic said. “It should be an interesting next couple of years and it will definitely change the traditional landscape.”</p> </div>
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<span property="dc:title" content="Influx of telecoms, cablecos into security not alarming, study says" class="rdf-meta element-hidden"></span>Fri, 07 Jun 2013 17:09:30 +0000Tess Nacelewicz16500 at http://securitysystemsnews.comhttp://securitysystemsnews.com/article/influx-telecoms-cablecos-security-not-alarming-study-says#commentsLowe’s launches home automation/home security servicehttp://securitysystemsnews.com/article/lowe-s-launches-home-automation-home-security-service
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<div class="field-item even">Company&#039;s Iris offering is self-installed and self-monitored; Lowe’s ‘will evaluate’ installation assistance</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:datePublished dc:date"><span class="date-display-single" property="schema:datePublished dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2012-07-19T00:00:00-04:00">07/19/2012</span></div>
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<div class="field-item even" rel="schema:author dc:creator">Tess Nacelewicz</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:articleBody content:encoded"> <p>MOOREVILLE, N.C.—Lowe’s, the world’s second-largest home improvement retailer, announced July 19 that it has launched Iris, its new home automation/home security service. The do-it-yourself, cloud-based service currently is available on Lowes.com and will be offered in the company’s 500 stores nationwide late in August, Sarah-Frances Wallace, a spokeswoman for Lowe’s, told <em>Security Systems News</em>.</p>
<p>“It’s a DIY system. It’s something that can literally be pulled off the shelf at our store and installed directly by the homeowner, and also it is self-monitored,” Wallace told SSN. “We’re really excited about the solution we’re offering to customers, which is affordable, scalable and customizable for their specific needs.”</p>
<p>After homeowners buy one of three Iris “starter kits,” which range in price from $179 to $299, “the basic level of [self-] monitoring service is free,” the company, based here, said in a news release. “This includes text [or phone or email] alerts to the homeowner when alarms are triggered; remote control of connected devices, thermostats and locks; and access to remote video streaming from cameras in the home via smartphone or computer.”</p>
<p>Wallace said homeowners “can respond appropriately” when they get an alert for a triggered alarm in the home. For example, she said, they can use an Iris camera to see “if there’s an intruder in your home that would require police response—you could then call the police—or if it’s the dog knocking something over.”</p>
<p>Wallace said self-monitoring helps avoid the problem of false alarms, for which many communities now charge homeowners a penalty. “This kind of gives the homeowner more control over triggered alarm events in the home,” she said.</p>
<p>The company also is offering a Premium self-monitoring service for $9.99 per month, “with no long-term contract obligations.” Wallace said that with the service, “you can set it up so if there’s a triggered event in your home, it would email [or text or call] your neighbor … [or a] a small network of people you’d want to receive notification of events.”</p>
<p>Such a service is ideal “if you’re on vacation and you receive a notification that there is an event in your home,” she said. “You could contact your neighbor—because they’ve also received [the notification]—and they could look into it for you.”</p>
<p>Lowe’s said the Premium service also includes “a unique feature—Iris Magic. Magic allows customers to ‘program’ their home through the use of home modes and customized rules for home management. These features provide simple ways for the homeowner to manage their home at night or while on vacation, utilizing scheduled device activation to move around in certain areas of the home at night or turn on lights and other devices on varying schedules when on vacation.”</p>
<p>Lowe’s about six months ago announced its plans to launch Iris this summer. Its entry into the space was <a href="http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/lowe-s-home-automation-home-security-launch-near" target="_blank">cited in a new report</a> as a factor in moving home automation/home security services into the mainstream and contributing to the predicted huge growth in that market.</p>
<p>The Iris starter kits are: Iris Safe &amp; Secure, which for $179 includes an Iris Hub, motion sensors, a keypad and door, window and cabinet sensors; Iris Comfort &amp; Control, which for the same price includes the Iris Hub, a thermostat “with an intuitive user interface,” and a smart plug that can “remotely control devices in the home and report back on the specific device's current and historical energy usage”; and the Iris Smart Kit, which for $299 combines the features of the other two kits and includes an Iris Hub, a motion sensor, a smart plug, a keypad, a range extender, a smart thermostat and two window, door and cabinet sensors.</p>
<p>Additional smart devices and sensors are available to homeowners to fit their needs, the company said. It said the Iris app “is available for free download for both iOS (iPhone, iPod touch and iPad) and Android users. Customers can also sign in to manage their home and view their user interface by visiting Lowes.com/Iris on any computer.”</p>
<p>Wallace said the company does not provide installation assistance for Iris, although she said that it is “something we certainly will be evaluating going forward.”</p>
<p>However, she said, there are videos on Lowe’s website demonstrating how to install devices. Wallace said homeowners familiar with such tasks as installing a new thermostat will have no problem installing the Iris thermostat. But she said if such tasks are “something they’ve always had done for them, they may still need to find somebody to help them out with that.”</p>
<p>Lowe’s said it has partnered with AlertMe, a smart-home technology company based in London, to develop the Iris platform and hub.</p>
<p>Lowe’s said it is also working with a “broad network of vendor partners to further develop a wide range of devices that are compatible with Iris,” including Schlage, GE Jasco and First Alert.</p>
<p>For example, Wallace said, First Alert smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors could be used with Iris. “The great thing about Iris and Lowe’s entering into this space is that we have a broad, broad network of vendor partners who can … create products to work with Iris, so that literally, probably, one day anything in our store that can connect will be able to connect with Iris,” she said.</p>
<p>Among vendor-produced products that Wallace said the Iris team is looking at is an automated pet door.</p>
<p>“Think of all your friends that go home at lunch to take the dog out. It would save them lots of time if they could remotely open the dog door for their dog, lock it behind the dog to ensure security, and when the dog comes back, you let him in and close it behind him,” she said.</p> </div>
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<span property="dc:title" content="Lowe’s launches home automation/home security service" class="rdf-meta element-hidden"></span>Thu, 19 Jul 2012 16:54:40 +0000Tess Nacelewicz15555 at http://securitysystemsnews.comhttp://securitysystemsnews.com/article/lowe-s-launches-home-automation-home-security-service#comments